Ok. I will tackle this tomorrow!
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Before I get going on this a couple of questions.
It seems that you, @tehn and @sam offered examples of the menu/function structure. Is there a consensus on the final function set? I am asking because seeing what the whole thing does will help me generate a few visual/interface solutions.
Only the button, and the PARAM knob are used to navigate this, correct?
This will be entirely new interface (meaning no other existing interface elements are present), correct?
Font grid for the entire screen is 32x8 characters, correct?
We have agreed on the menus, I think. There are really only 3 menus, the rest are selectors.
Top:
- Save
- Load
- Exit
Save:
- Bank (goes to bank selector)
- Scene (goes to scene selector)
- Back
Load:
- Bank
- Scene
- Back
The rest of your assumptions are correct!
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Almost… it’s 8 lines, but the font is proportional, so it’s approx 32 characters.
Right.
Just wanted to get that 32x8 ‘ballpark’ reference confirmed.
Thank you.
How is this to start the conversation:
If people think this is a good approach, then the Configuration Menu
could be laid out in a similar fashion.
I think visually it fits in the Teletype sensibility.
The big question is whether you agree on my navigation suggestions:
—PARAM to scroll the current menu with the selected item being highlighted. Then button press to select that item and move on to the next menu, until the final YES/NO commit is reached. Selecting YES commits to the function, and moves the highlight back to the top menu. Selecting NO moves you back to the previous column/menu.
—Scrolling using PARAM knob CW moves the highlight down the menu, and loops back to the first item of the menu, when the highlight reaches beyond the bottom menu item.
—Scrolling using PARAM knob CCW moves the highlight up within the menu, and moves back to the previous menu, when the highlight reaches beyond the top menu item.
What do you think?
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Just to add: I will make the layout for the Configuration Menu once the design/navigation approach is discussed and agreed upon here.
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I can scale the knob value to any value. I had coded up an even-division scheme where, e.g., YES is left-of-center and NO is right of center, but I can do a fixed scale with a wrap-around no problem.
The scale might be tricky because banks can go up to 257 entries.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. Two things:
1/ The content of the “number menus” in LOAD category can be adjusted to only show things that are actually there, and not display the empty slots. Even in the SAVE menu it can show only the existing “full” slots PLUS one extra slot to save to.
2/ With scaling of the knob behavior, I think rotating even through the list of 257 entries might not be bad, if the “precision” of the knob is adjusted to the speed with which user is moving it.
I really like the approach! How about combining it with the configuration menu? We could save one screen then to know about which feels simpler and more minimalistic to me - LOAD/SAVE would just not work then with no USB drive plugged in.
I think when you really have 257 banks on your USB drive you have earned the privilege on some extra encoder turns…
Way ahead of you on that: the core was built around this assumption.
It’s a pot, not an encoder. I’d rather not do anything with the speed of the turn.
Also, it would be 256 banks + BACK
Totally agree!
256 values on a turn of a pot is going to be hard work. I even find the 128 values I have on the pots on my Korg Radias hard to dial in quickly.
I guess it will be something that’s easy enough to change, but be prepared for the number of banks being closer to 32 or 64 in order to be usable.
(edit, lovely design @laborcamp btw)
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I expect that people will not have anywhere near that number, even if the system is capable of it.
This makes the case for automatically scaling the knob to the number of selections. It’s predictable, but requires significant travel for few values, if you consider ~> 1/3 of a turn to be “significant” for a 3 value list.
It’s intuitive, I think.
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Just realized, @laborcamp, we need to allocate more space for column 2 in your mockup. We will now need more items there due to to the loss of the title bar.
4 more chars for SRC or DST plus a space.
Additionally, I can write the first line of the scene description on the bottom line of the screen if you want to simulate that.
A couple more thoughts:
- Perhaps instead of the highlight bar moving, it could always be in the center. Then turning the pot is like rotating a cylinder.
- The third column (selector) will not need to be present when the OK window is shown. In fact, that window should probably be converted to a more “dialog” look and feel because some of the confirmation questions are critical, e.g.: overwriting a scene or bank.
- Exit / Back should always be the first or last option in a list. Probably the first, as turning the dial left feels more like “back” to me than turning it right.
Also, I just wanted to say that whatever I had in my head would have turned out much worse than this is already going. Thanks for the high-quality contributions, @laborcamp!
I wonder why I cannot follow anymore - is it me being a bit slow or are you just discussing it via PM to avoid the forum noise of deranging / uninformed opinions?
I think this would not fit very good into the tt design as parts of the menu would get hidden at the screen edges. Moving the cursor seems simple and beautiful to me.
Additionally, I can write the first line of the scene description on the bottom line of the screen if you want to simulate that.
I like this idea!
Also I am very thankful to @sliderule developing all this and @laborcamp for his dedicated work on all those beautiful descriptive screen mockups!
This is all in the open. 
@laborcamp the layout looks fantastic!
understood that the destination needs to be selectable.
256 banks is going to be way too many. i’m pretty sure the scaling of the pot will be a problem at this resolution. in my opinion, 64 banks would be more than enough.
in general the pot position management will be tricky. ie, when you enter the usb mode with the pot at mid-value. unless you want to do some sort of dynamic scaling (ie, left is one speed, right is another speed-- and then each value change retunes the “step”) we may need some sort of first instruction to “reset” the pot back left (CCW).
i’d almost suggest the left-most position (top left of the menu) be EXIT, so it’s fast/intuitive to get out of the screen without a tuned micro-gesture.
I guess then it’s just me. Anyway, I am sure it will turn out great in the end.
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